I will try a screen grab again.
It spits .PNG images out but works with JPG.
Thatās interesting: the private browsing trick does not work for me.
What I did notice was that address of the observation I select briefly appears in the address bar, before a redirect to the 403.
It is very odd as most of the time I can use the site fine and clearly there are plenty of observations coming in and comments/agreements being made so the bug is only affecting some people some of the time. Also I get 404 not 403 bugs.
Consitently (so far!) this morning Iām getting the 403 - Forbidden error when I try to access observations from Explore community | List but am getting proper access to the same observations from the home page carousel. Once Iāve got to an observation I can agree and comment as normal. (Windows 10, Chrome, domestic broadband)
I got this from Refugee this morning
"I have just opened this observation from the changes tracker and got this comment in without the 403 error everyone else has been getting.
I did it by opening it in a private browser window selected from the right click pull down in Firefox and then logging in to clear the red ānot logged inā banner by logging in."
.
So I tested an old trick (this has happened before) with Chrome.
Right click open in incognito and then log in
Worked for me but it still failed in one
How laborious!
I have copied some stuff to @Chris_Valentine
One of the previous times this came up there was an issue with various people (including Derek and myself) having corrupted cookies. That people are managing to access the site in incognito mode suggests something similar is happening.
But clearing cookies and relogging in hasnāt worked this time.
Nothing Iāve tried works - private browsing, different browsers, VPN on/off. Iām unable to access anything other than the forum.
Iād have to suggest that it should never be up to the user to use, let alone find or develop, work-arounds. A button on a webpage should always do, without any fuss or bother, just exactly what itās meant to do: itās up to the webpage provider to ensure that this happens. (And Iām sure that the programmers are working to make this happen with iSpot.)
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Yes, it may be a problem with cookies but what is causing so many usersā cookies to fail in such similar ways at pretty much the same time? Perhaps the cookies being delivered are faulty?
Itās good that so many are telling of the woes since that makes us aware itās affecting others. I am dispirited! The work around I used to agree with and comment upon a lovely stag yesterday evening I can barely remember, it took so long. I persevered but to repeat that for so many new observations, no. What dispirited me was seeing so many delicious looking observations in gallery view and being unable just to open any of them without a 403. 
What I suspected last time is that while trying the fix the problems last time the developers inadvertently temporarily changed the cookie format.
Another possible fix
Click on one, to get 403 - Forbidden
Add #new to the URL in the Brower bar and enter
Like ā¦www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/837184/815-lichen#new
Works for me most times I removed https:// in the link above so you could see the suffix I used
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Thanks for offering this. I canāt work out how to do this simply by adding characters to the address in the iPad Iām using just now, such is my comfort level with IT!! I could copy the address, paste it into a new tab add the suffix and go, it did work. Not as fast as typing that last sentence (one finger, holding iPad in other hand!) though. But I did get into one observation afresh and could agree so maybe worth keeping tryingā¦ā¦.and sitting at computer as well of course.
Pity those who use a phone, Smart or not.
Working on a PC means much better iSpotting anyway - I have a 26" monitor.
I have just added responses and comments to 30 using the #new suffix.
Bless anyone who tries this fix and succeeds.
It is all very waring!
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Hi Mags, I have just tried the #new suffix and it does work (cheers Dejay). However it is fiddly on an iPad. What I did was tap in the address bar at the top where it says ispot nature.org which bring up the whole link starting with https but it will be highlighted. You have to tap on it which will bring up the blue dot at the beginning of the highlighted link. You then drag the blue dot to the end of the link so it removes the highlight - then you can type in #new then enter. Hope Iāve explained that ok as Iām not great with IT either lol! Whilst it is a fix to be honest Iām just waiting until itās fixed properly before I use the site.
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Thanks for this, @Luisa, yes of course it works. I appreciate that you took the time to explain that! Visited an obs and made a comment. 
But why do I have to do this? (Rhetorical question) Why is understanding more IT needed to enjoy a nature site (rhetorical again!).
Exasperated of Greater Glasgow
This observation should help the OUās programmers locate the problem. They now know to look for somewhere where URLs with and without page anchors are treated differently. (Thoā itās not at all obvious to me why access control code would be paying any attention to anchors.) Or possibly the version with the anchor get through because itās not in the list of page URLs to which access permissions are associated.
I too am blessed with v large monitor on desktop. Also blessed with person with whom I share a home!!! But I do normally enjoy looking through the obs of others for a while on sofa with cuppa But with phone only and this 403 issue, I would give up.
What a horror when Iām just back from a week away with 3 pages of Changes Tracker to look at and I am getting the 403 error mentioned above (many comments, otherwise I would leave it alone). After several tries on my pc, I managed to get in using Derekās @dejayM secret formula but a) why do we have to and b) how on earth did dejay come up with this??
I suppose what I should do is just get on with the photographs I took while in Devon: several for National Fungus Day (Iāll need help IDāing them, thank you all in advance) and afterwards, stuff from rockpools including lovely seaweeds (help will be sought).
Look forward to seeing what youāve seen @NorthernTeacher when I can just press a link to do that!
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